BRENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Title
BRENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Subject
BRENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Description
Brent Elementary, located near the Capitol on 3rd and North Carolina, SE. This location has been in constant use for education since 1809, when a portion of the lot was purchased for the Washington Academy for a whopping $100, a price that today might allow you to purchase a commemorative brick or two for Brent\’s walkway.
Robert Brent was the first mayor of Washington, DC. He stumbled into that role by happening to own a fair amount of land when the Federal Government decided that much of it would make a lovely capital.
Robert Brent would become a prosperous merchant, most notably by selling the government the sandstone required to build the White House and the Capitol. He was asked by Thomas Jefferson to become the first mayor of the new City of Washington. Having little population at the time, there was relatively little point in having an elected mayor at this point. He served without pay for ten years, reappointed annually well into President James Madison\’s term. As mayor, he was responsible for starting the process of turning Peter L\’Enfant\’s grand vision into a working city, made that much more difficult as L\’Enfant had been sacked and many of his details had not been elaborated upon. In Brent\’s ten terms, provisions were made to continue laying out roads, establish a tax system, build public markets, and, yes, establish a public school system.
But little did he know it that his story would come full circle at Brent Elementary. In a recently discovered document, Robert Brent was one of 370 local luminaries that signed a pledge by President Jefferson to build a public school system in the nation\’s Capital. In an original version of a public-private venture, they raised funds to build two one rooms school houses, one of which was on the site of –you guessed it– Brent Elementary.
Robert Brent was the first mayor of Washington, DC. He stumbled into that role by happening to own a fair amount of land when the Federal Government decided that much of it would make a lovely capital.
Robert Brent would become a prosperous merchant, most notably by selling the government the sandstone required to build the White House and the Capitol. He was asked by Thomas Jefferson to become the first mayor of the new City of Washington. Having little population at the time, there was relatively little point in having an elected mayor at this point. He served without pay for ten years, reappointed annually well into President James Madison\’s term. As mayor, he was responsible for starting the process of turning Peter L\’Enfant\’s grand vision into a working city, made that much more difficult as L\’Enfant had been sacked and many of his details had not been elaborated upon. In Brent\’s ten terms, provisions were made to continue laying out roads, establish a tax system, build public markets, and, yes, establish a public school system.
But little did he know it that his story would come full circle at Brent Elementary. In a recently discovered document, Robert Brent was one of 370 local luminaries that signed a pledge by President Jefferson to build a public school system in the nation\’s Capital. In an original version of a public-private venture, they raised funds to build two one rooms school houses, one of which was on the site of –you guessed it– Brent Elementary.
Source
Info from: http://www.thehillishome.com/2009/11/how-the-schools-of-capitol-hill-got-their-names-brent-elementary/
Files
Collection
Citation
“BRENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL,” Arthur Capper, accessed April 24, 2024, https://arthurcapper.omeka.net/items/show/42.